Letters to Rose
by CokeBottleK
Summary: Rose Weasley just wants to get through her meals, her homework, her detentions, and her complete lack of a love life in peace. But when your family's comprised of a mass multitude of Potters and Weasleys, "peace" isn't really an option.
1. We're Just Friends, Mum

**DISCLAIMER: My life is mediocre at best, and therefore I own none of these fantastic wonderful Potter-y things. Cover art by burdge-bug.**

_FEAR NOT. None of my WIPs are abandoned – I'm simply drunk on fanfiction today and I want to make all the things. I'm just in so many ship moods! _

_Okay, so here's the dealio on this fic: _

_1. This is my first Scorose so everybody just chill and accept it for what it is. I've done my fanfiction-y research, so I've got a good idea of what I like along with what Scorose fanatics expect._

_2. The way this format will work is: Each chapter will begin with a letter to Rose (ha! Geddit? Because of the title? …nevermind, I'm being a nerd), and the basic context of the chapter will be in some sort of correlation with that letter. I have no idea how many chapters this will be – however many it takes for the story to be done. Vague? ABSOLUTELY, MOVING ON…_

_3. The Next Generation characters I have decided to use are: _**Rose Weasley**_ (duh; Ravenclaw, 6__th__ year) and _**Scorpius Malfoy **_(obviously; Slytherin, 6__th__ year). _**Hugo Weasley**_ (Gryffindor, 4__th__) – Ron and Hermione's son, Rose's brother. _**Lucy Weasley**_ (Ravenclaw, 6__th__) – Percy's daughter. _**James**_ (Gryffindor, 7__th__), _**Albus**_ (Slytherin, 6__th__), and _**Lily Potter**_ (Gryffindor, 3__rd__) – Harry and Ginny's kids. _**Fred**_ and _**Roxanne Weasley**_ (Gryffindor, 7__th__) – George and Angelina's children, who I have decided are twins. I will also be throwing in some semi-OCs for good measure ("semi-OCs," meaning that I'm making them up but they'll have canon-based surnames). I have absolutely no information on the NG's ages/Houses and I DON'T CARE I DON'T WANT TO FIGURE IT OUT BECAUSE THERE'S TOO MANY OF THEM AND I DON'T LIKE TO MATH SO PLEASE DON'T HARRASS ME ABOUT IT. _

_Whew. Now, all that being said, let us begin!_

* * *

**September 16th**

_Dear Rose – _

_It's barely the third week of term and you've already gotten four detentions? I'll have to double-check to be sure, but I rather think you're giving your Uncle Harry's fifth-year detention streak a run for its money. He'll be so proud. Incidentally, your father and Uncle George are thrilled, you'll be pleased to know, and I have a sneaking suspicion that you and Scorpius are getting caught on purpose so that your father gives him the Overprotective Father's seal of approval. _

_I'm sure you're rolling your eyes by now, and I know, I know, you and Scorpius are "just friends." I won't tell you again about how your father and I were "just friends," too, I'm sure you're tired of hearing it._

_Anyway, I've gotten away from myself. Really what I wanted to ask you is to please, please stay out of any more trouble. You're setting a terrible example for the younger ones, which of course we can blame on your uncles for raising James, Fred, and Roxanne first, and I know that's where you're getting these ideas from. I'm surprised Lucy's managed to escape their influence, but then she is Uncle Percy's daughter, so perhaps that has something to do with it._

_Please, Rosie, keep your toes in line. Four detentions in three weeks is just too much, and you're going to give poor Professor McGonagall a heart attack. Between Uncle Harry's parents and their friends, Fred and George, and everything that your father, Harry, and I got up to when we were at school, Minerva has been through quite enough. I'm glad she's retiring after this year; she deserves a break. _

_Be a sweetheart and cut her some slack, please._

_All my love – Mum _

* * *

Rose Weasley rolled her eyes as they scanned over her mother's letter for the dozenth time that day. If her father and Uncle George were so proud of her, she wished one of them had written instead; she loved her mum, of course, but she could be such a square sometimes. She'd been right about one thing, though – Rose _was_ tired of hearing the "just friends" schpiel, but she was too busy being insulted to care much about that.

Because it certainly hadn't been under any of her cousins' instructions that she and Scorpius had turned the third-floor corridor into a hallway of gelatin. That had been of her and Scor's own combined genius. Sure, they'd bickered about it first – she'd wanted the gelatin to be blue for Ravenclaw and he'd wanted green for Slytherin – but in the end they'd done both and stood aside to admire their handiwork.

The problem with Rose Weasley and Scorpius Malfoy, though, had always been their tendency to take a little too much credit for whatever handiwork they crafted. While this worked out favorably when it came to exemplary schoolwork, trouble-making tended to have just slightly more negative consequences. But they took the blows because, after all, their pranks were finely crafted and they thought they earned the recognition, no matter how many detentions came with it.

Rose didn't mind. It was better for her to be stuck in detention than it would be if some berk like Erik McLaggen took credit for the gelatinous corridor. Stupid tosser that he was, of course he'd take the fall and the consequent glory, but Rose Weasley wasn't having that, and that's why she was currently sitting in detention, re-reading her mother's letter when she was supposed to be organizing Filch's files.

Figuring she should get back to work before Filch decided to uselessly threaten her with the ankle shackles again, Rose folded the letter and dropped it onto the desk. She blew some of her unruly, more-red-than-brown auburn curls out of her face and muttered under her breath about ridiculous genes, and then she was back to stacking folders.

She was about halfway through the third stack when she heard the door creak open. _Great_, she thought, trying and failing to blow more hair out of her face, _here come those tedious shackles threats…_

"Weasley, are you seriously still working?"

Rose's head snapped up to see her partner-in-crime striding through the door. Scorpius Malfoy, all six-foot-something, white-blonde hair that desperately needed a cut, and laughing silver eyes; he had his hands thrust in his pockets and a positively gleeful smile plastered across his mouth. Rose was actually a little annoyed with how attractive her best mate was, but that was information that she kept between herself and her cousin Lucy; otherwise she crossed her heart that she'd take that straight to the grave.

"What are you so pleased about?" Rose wanted to know.

"Well, I'm done with my detention," Scorpius said as he hopped up onto the desk she was working at. "So yeah, I'm just pretty pleased in general."

Rose snorted. "Bugger off."

Scorpius ignored her, instead choosing to pick up the letter she'd discarded and asking, "What is this? Can I read it?"

"Sure." Rose waved an inviting hand. "Just a letter from Mum about what a troublemaker I am, you know, the usual."

"Too right," Scorpius said with a grin that widened with every line of Hermione Weasley's letter to her authority-defiant daughter. "Really, though, what can she expect? She's said so herself a number of times right here, you were _raised_ by miscreants. It's in your blood."

"I _know_," Rose agreed emphatically. "All that coming from the woman who snuck around with an illegal dragon and broke into Gringotts and a load of other things that I've lost count of. D'you think she'd lay off if I said I just wanted to live up to the expectations she's set through example?"

Scorpius laughed. "Nice try, but no way," he said. "Although she does seem to want you to follow in her 'just friends' footsteps…"

"Ugh, don't remind me."

"_Ugh?"_ Scorpius pouted in her direction. "That hurts, Weasley. Because, you know what, we really should go out. It'd annoy the pants off my dad."

Rose whacked him with one of the folders she was supposed to be organizing. "Why the hell would I go out with you?"

Scorpius pretended to think about it. He was always teasing Rose about going out with him, but truth be told he was actually rather partial to the idea. Rose was fun and smart and she could keep up with him witticism for witticism – hell, oftentimes she surpassed him in that respect. And as much as Scorpius almost hated to admit it about one of his best mates, Rose Weasley was unfairly attractive, too, with her absolute mess of curls, those very big and very blue eyes, the freckles that skipped across the bridge of her nose and the plane of her cheekbones, those ridiculous hipbones and those very very pink lips – Scorpius had to mentally shake himself to get his thoughts back on track, but still… God, it was so unfair.

But of course Scorpius couldn't tell her any of that, because they were best mates and she wouldn't hesitate to push him out of the nearest window. So he decided to rope in his hormones, and settled for teasing her some more instead.

"Because, Weasley," he said with a wicked smirk, "I'm a phenomenal snogger."

Rose rolled her eyes more dramatically than she had while reading her mother's letter. "Yeah, is that what Emme McLaggen tells you?" she asked with another snort. "God, I still can't believe you're screwing around with her; her brother's such a prick."

"He's only a prick because he fancies you," Scorpius pointed out, a little put-off because Erik really was a prick and Rose could do much better.

"Oh, how charming." She wrinkled her nose. "Excuse me while I gag."

"Whatever," Scorpius said with an uncontainable smile. "Anyway, you know, if I don't screw around with Emme, what else am I gonna do?"

Rose smacked him again. "You're such a slag."

"I'm not a _slag_," Scorpius said, almost really offended that time. "I'm lonely!"

"Please," Rose scoffed, unsure of why she was so annoyed with him all of a sudden. Scorpius wasn't really a slag and she couldn't care less who he was kinda-sorta dating. They were just friends, despite her mother's insistence to the contrary, no matter how good-looking the stupid blighter was or how often he teased her about going out on date.

Friends. That was it. Just friends.

"Don't be cross, Weasley," Scorpius said, tweaking her nose playfully, "you know you're the only girl for me."

Rose slapped his hand away. "Shut up, I hate you."

That only made Scorpius laugh. "Come on," he pressed, wondering if he could get her to say yes this time, "you can spare a Hogsmeade date for me, can't you?"

"No, Scor, I can't."

"Why not?" he asked. If she was going to keep turning down his joke-proposals, well, she'd better have a damn good excuse for it. "Give me one good reason why you can't go out with me."

"Oh, all right, I wasn't aware that _I don't want to_ wasn't a valid reason," Rose said, her voice positively doused in sarcasm. "That's fine, though, I've got another: I can't go out with you because I hate you and I would kill you and I'm rather sure that would spoil the mood."

"Plus I'm screwing around with Emme," Scorpius added, knowing she was full of it.

"That, too," Rose agreed with a slight incline of her head. "You slut."

He smiled. "See, this is why I like you best."

"Whatever." Rose shuffled the files around, straightening them up a bit before she moved on to the next batch. "Speaking of Hogsmeade, though, are you skipping out on us? Me, Al, and Lucy are going to drag Lily around; it'll be her first."

"What about Hugo?"

"You didn't hear?" Rose's eyes lit up and Scorpius couldn't help but privately note how good she looked when her eyes did that; it was like sunbeams were bursting out of her cell structure. "Hugo's got a _date_."

"What?" Scorpius blinked past the sunbeams to concentrate on this newly divulged information. "With who?"

"Cori Finnegan," Rose told him with an approving nod. She'd always liked Cori and she was sure their mother would most definitely approve, too; Cori Finnegan was the type of girl who'd keep Hugo out of trouble, no matter what his fun-loving – albeit slightly criminal – relatives got up to.

"_Really?"_ Scorpius whistled, impressed. "Good for Hugo."

"Hear, hear," Rose agreed with another nod before she switched gears back to her original question. "So are you ditching us or what?"

Scorpius shrugged. "I dunno. Emme's sort of boring, really," he confided, even though Rose was already well aware, "so I'm sure I'll catch up to you guys at some point."

Rose shot him a half-amused, half-exasperated look. "Now what kind of thing is that to say about your sort-of-girlfriend?"

"Well, she is!" Scorpius insisted. "Boring, I mean. You'd never see her filing Filch's paperwork because she turned a corridor into Jell-O."

"I'm not going out with you," Rose reiterated, shaking her head and attempting to hide her grin.

"Why's that again?"

"Because I hate you."

Scorpius nodded as if he'd just made some grand discovery. "Right, that. Go out with McLaggen, then," he said, not really knowing why he was making the suggestion. Even if Rose wanted to, he certainly wouldn't support it, so what the hell was he on about?

"I thought you were going out with McLaggen."

"The _other_ McLaggen, you git."

"No, I don't think I will," Rose said lightly, "because I'd _actually_ kill him and Mum wants me to keep my toes in line. I reckon homicide is about as far from the line as you can get."

"Go out with someone else, then." Scorpius had no idea what he was doing, pushing her like this, but for some reason he felt like he had to. He was almost certain that it had something to do with the sunbeams.

Rose didn't seem to know what he was trying to get at, either, because she just hit him again and said, "Oh, get out of my face. I don't want to go out with anyone!"

"You're weird," he accused.

"You're just a close-minded tramp," she countered.

Scorpius shoved her a little, totally unaware of how much he was trying her precarious irritability. "Stop calling me names."

"Stop telling me to go out with people I hate," Rose said, really losing the hold on her temper now. Why on earth should she go out with anyone, and what the hell was Scorpius playing at, pushing her like this? This wasn't the first time he'd done it, but the first time had been quite enough for her. "Or anyone, for that matter. Seriously, you're going to irreparably piss me off one of these days."

"I just thought you could use a break from the ol' homework-prank-eat-eat-prank-homework-eat routine that you've fallen into over the past five years," Scorpius said. He held up his hands in a gesture of surrender. "But, hey, if that's what you want, I don't care. Be miserable."

"I'm not _miserable_," Rose snapped. "Not all of us have to quench our relentless libidos to be happy."

Scorpius frowned at her. "Look, Weasley, I just thought –"

"No, you didn't," she cut across him. "The very last thing you did was _think_, Scorpius Malfoy, so you can just go away. I'm not in the mood to be told that I need to do something stupid like date just for the sake of it."

Rose turned away from him in a huff, determinedly keeping her very angry blue eyes on her detention task. The day had started off so well, so gelatinous and comically genius, and now she was in a right bad temper because her fellow degenerate insisted that she had to do something she didn't feel like doing. She hated being told what to do; she made good decisions for the most part, always knowing when to stop before she went too far, always owning up to her mistakes and finishing her homework well before it was due. She put her family first and she was a good friend, and she didn't see why she needed to muck any of that up by latching onto the arm of some insignificant bloke who wasn't worth her time.

So now she sat and she fumed and she tried to concentrate on her task, and she ignored the way Scorpius's eyes were boring into her as he tried to assess how best to get out of the hole he'd dug himself into.

_Oh, Merlin…_ She'd played the full-name card _and_ she was refusing to look at him; Scorpius knew Rose, and he knew he was really going to have to beg now. He sighed at the thought, but nevertheless spun around on the table and slid off until he was kneeling on the floor, right next to Rose's chair.

"Weasley," he said, reaching for her hand but she tugged it away. So he simply settled his head on her thigh and tried to avoid thoughts about how very nice her legs were and how he'd very much like to run his hands up and down the length of them, repeatedly, for hours on end…

_Fuck, get it together, Malfoy._

"_Rosie,"_ he tried next, only succeeding in making her scowl. She hated being called _Rosie_; only her parents were allowed to call her that. "Apple of my very undeserving eye…"

"Piss off."

Scorpius grinned. He'd gotten a rise out of her, and that meant she was talking to him again, no matter how hostile she acted. "Are you still cross with me, then?"

"Yes," Rose muttered quite truthfully. "I'm just not going to cause a big row about it. I've known you too long to expect you to be anything less than the idiot you are, and you know what a big advocate I am for self-expression and all that bollocks."

"You're my best mate, Weasley," Scorpius told her very seriously. He pushed back thoughts about how much he'd like to ditch Emme McLaggen for good, all so he could spend uninhibited time with his best mate's freckles and hipbones.

Rose pushed his head out of her lap. "Yeah, same here," she said, thinking of all that "just friends" business again because she could never really get her mother's voice out of her head. "Whatever, Malfoy."

* * *

_A/N: Those of you who know me are well-aware of my very adamant anti-love triangle mentality, so as far as the whole Scorpius/Emme thing goes, don't worry about it. I just wanted to work with a different dynamic than I usually do, but that "relationship" isn't going to be the driving force behind any conflict. I'm not into that drama. Ain't nobody got time for that._

_Reviews are Rose Weasley's sunbeams, and I'll see you for Chapter 2! ;D –K. _


	2. No, Dad, We're Not Shagging

_EVERYONE, thank you for your reviews! I'm happy that this is so far well-received. I'll admit, I had my trepidations creeping up on me, what with this being my first Next Gen fic and all._

_One reviewer asked if we'd see a lot of Scorose pranks, and my answer to that is… As long as I can come up with things for them to do, then they'll keep pranking, despite how much Hermione might disapprove. Because as much of Hermione's daughter as Rose is, she really inherited Ron's tendencies to not pay much attention to Hermione's good sensibilities. _

_Someone else asked how Rose and Scorpius became friends, and my idea is this: They, along with Albus, are in the same year, and Albus and Scorpius are both in Slytherin so they were friends first. A couple of weeks into their first-year term, Rose came over to the Slytherin table and Scorpius made some remark about Ravenclaws being know-it-alls, so she dumped a plate of scrambled eggs on his head, he threw a bagel at her, and all this started a full-fledged food fight and that is the story of how Rose and Scorpius got their first detention and bonded over Muggle cleaning products in the dungeons. ~Fin._

* * *

**September 23****rd**

_Rosie – _

_Turns out you beat the pants off Uncle Harry's fifth-year detention streak. Ha! But you've still got a ways to go before you beat out Uncles Fred and George; mind you, there were two of them, but George has since informed me that's no excuse for you to slack off. I have to agree, too, since you've still got your cousins there, and Malfoy, I guess, if you must._

_Your mother won't say a word about that, by the way – about Malfoy. And you. She's not usually this quiet about things. Should I be worried?_

_Wait._

_You know what, this is exactly the sort of thing that happened when Harry fancied Ginny… Nobody told me anything._

_Is that what this is? Rosie, you're not – you know (please don't make me write it down) – are you?_

_Sweet Merlin._

_Please don't be doing what I think you might be doing._

_Love – Dad _

* * *

"I think you should make him write it down," said Roxanne, who had joined Rose at the Ravenclaw table for breakfast that morning and was reading the letter over her shoulder. "Write him back and make him explain it. Oh – tell him you need diagrams!"

"Eurgh." Rose stuck out her tongue and reached over to nick the rest of the bacon from her cousin's plate. "I'd rather not, thanks, seeing as how it was revealed to me during last year's very drunken Christmas Eve that my parents _saved themselves_ for each other. I don't need the details."

Roxanne pulled a face. "Oh, gross," she said, "your parents are in love."

"Ha!" Rose laughed as she piled bacon and scrambled eggs between two slices of toast. "Whatever you say, Rox, but so are your parents."

"Blech." Roxanne downed half a goblet of pumpkin juice. "But fine, don't tell him you need diagrams. The least you could do is shag Scorpius, though; I mean, since our entire family seems to think you're doing it, anyway –"

"My father hardly constitutes the entire family," Rose pointed out. She took a large bite of her sandwich and a bit of egg fell out of her mouth.

Roxanne smacked her upside the head. "Well, no one's going to shag you when you've got food leaking out of your facial orifices!"

"God, don't call my mouth a _facial orifice_, please –"

"Blah blah." Roxanne waved a dismissive hand. "Anyway, your dad might as well constitute the entire family for all the good it'll do you. He's obviously freaked himself out, you know he's going to run off to Uncle Harry, and then Aunt Ginny's going to yell at him for being stupid, and then someone's bound to hear Aunt Ginny because she's so bloody loud, right, and in conclusion, my dear, you might as well let the fit blonde boy shag your brains out. It's a small consolation prize for the mega-event that is our meddlesome family, I'll admit, but it's compensation nonetheless."

Rose looked on, a little disturbed, as her cousin sighed wistfully and continued. "A fit, six-foot-something boy with the best-looking hands this little girl's ever seen might just be enough incentive to give your dad a coronary, or whatever it is that the Muggles call them."

"Why don't you shag him, then," Rose suggested through a mouthful of food, "if you're so interested in his fitness levels?"

"I have a strict look-but-don't-touch policy, remember," Roxanne reminded her, snapping herself out of whatever fantasy she'd dove into in favor of good sense. "Relationships are too distracting. I have more important things to do, like Quidditch and… I dunno, picking out the stray threads on my quilt."

Remembering what she'd said to Scorpius just a few days ago, Rose had to agree with her cousin's assessment. "Detention, too, much too busy with detention."

Roxanne nodded sagely. "Verily, my dear Weasley," she said. "Speaking of, James and Fred are totally peeved that you got that third-floor corridor a couple of weeks back. They wanted in."

"Well, they're stupid," Rose said as she threw together another sandwich. "They weren't even around when we did the Transfiguration. James was doing lines because he set Peabody's trousers on fire the day before, and Fred was scrubbing the trophy room because of that incident with the nifflers that we're not allowed to talk about."

"You know," said a loud voice from behind the girls, causing them to turn around to grin at their cousins Fred and James, who were sitting at the Gryffindor table, "when I said we're not allowed to talk about it, that includes casually inserting it into the conversation. _It never happened_."

"So what were you scrubbing the trophy room for, then?" Rose smirked.

Fred, however, appeared entirely unruffled when he said, "That room was atrocious; I was performing a civil duty."

"You said something similar about the nifflers," James pointed out.

"I don't even know what a niffler is," Fred said haughtily while the rest of them laughed.

Rose checked her watch. "Much as I'd like to give you a quick Care of Magical Creatures lesson, Freddie," she said, "I've got class."

She shouldered her bag, swung her legs over the bench, and after grabbing another sandwich and waving good-bye to her cousins, Rose left the Great Hall. She kept her eyes on alert for some sign of Scorpius, who she thought might get a kick out of yet another Weasley letter. She found him meandering around the next corridor with Albus, the pair of them slacking off during their morning free period before the Slytherins' Charms lesson.

"Hey, Rose." Albus greeted her with an affectionate mussing of her uncontrollable-as-it-was hair. "What are you doing?"

"I've got class in about ten or so," Rose told him, smacking Scorpius when he leaned down and successfully took a bite of the sandwich she was holding.

"Shit." Albus grabbed her arm to check her watch, having swapped his the week before for a bag of Dungbombs that he just couldn't wait to get on his own in Hogsmeade. "I'm supposed to meet Richter to strategize for the next Quidditch match. I'll see you guys later."

"Look at this," Rose said as Albus hurried off to meet up with his co-captain. She shoved her father's letter under Scorpius's nose and the rest of the sandwich into her mouth so it would be safe from any more sneak attacks. "My dad thinks we're shagging."

"Oh?" Scorpius's eyes pretended to scan the letter, but they were rather preoccupied with staring at the way Rose's tongue flicked over her bottom lip for crumbs. He was really going to have to learn to control himself, he knew, but in the meantime he thought he could stand to tease her a little more.

"_Well_ then…" He caught her wrist and started dragging her down the corridor towards the nearest broom cupboard.

"Ack!" Realizing what he was doing, Rose dug her heels into the stone floor to prevent herself from being manhandled any further. "That wasn't an open invitation, Scor, I just thought it was a laugh!"

"I'm not laughing," Scorpius said, although it was clear that he was hard-pressed not to. "Come on, Rosie, let's shag."

She twisted her arm out of his grip and scowled. "Don't call me _Rosie_!"

Scorpius sighed in a defeated sort of way. "Well, all right, but I can't be held responsible for what comes out of my mouth in the throes of passion –"

"You're not allowed to shag me, either."

"God, you're no fun."

Rose whipped her bag around and hit him in the stomach with it. "You're such a prat. I'd really like to have a conversation without you making fun of me every five seconds."

There was a sudden, clear note of impatience to her voice now, and it was only then that Rose realized how very irritated she'd gotten with Scorpius's jokes lately. He'd been telling the same ones over and over again for at least two years now and she'd always let them go (that time in detention the week before notwithstanding), but her patience seemed to have reached its peak. She didn't understand why he kept insisting to spoil her perfectly good days like this.

"I wasn't making fun of you!" he argued, having noticed Rose's whiplash-like change in temperament as well.

"Whatever," she muttered and started making her way down the corridor, "I hope you drown."

Scorpius followed her. _"Drown?"_ he echoed, once again trying not to laugh as not to annoy her further. "What are you going to do, hold me under my soup at dinner or what?"

"Hell if I know, Scor; sometimes I just say things," Rose said, continuing to spew out her thoughts stream-of-consciously, without knowing why she couldn't get a handle on herself. "Just, you know, like be intimidated or something, I don't have time to explain this to you."

"But_ Weasleeeey_…" he groaned petulantly, trying to get back on her good side through sheer childishness. He honestly didn't know what he'd done this time, so he felt pretty pathetic as it was.

"Ugh." Rose snorted, disgusted. "Don't whine, or I'll end our friendship this instant."

"I just want to know what's wrong." Scorpius caught her wrist again, stopping her in her tracks. "All you've done lately is snap at me, have you noticed that?"

"All _you've_ done lately is be stupid," she snapped, proving his point and jerking her hand free, "so can you blame me?"

Scorpius regarded her curiously. "Are you on the rag?"

"Oh my _god_." Rose turned on her heel and started marching away again. "I hope your first child is a Cyclops."

"Seriously?" Scorpius said, unable to bite back his laughter that time.

Rose knew the comment had deserved nothing more or less than a chuckle, but she was too teed-off to appreciate her own joke. She didn't know how her and Scorpius's dynamic had gotten so wildly off-track these past couple of weeks, but she also didn't know how to settle it back down to where it was supposed to be.

"Shove off," she said. His laughter grated on her nerves. "Go find Emme and drag _her_ into a broom cupboard, why don't you, you seem rather fond of doing that sort of thing lately."

That cut Scorpius's laugh short. Was that what she was suddenly so annoyed about? he wondered. He knew that she didn't like Emme and she thought Scorpius was a tool for fooling around with her, but he hadn't imagined that it would make her so rough around the edges. Most of the time she just rolled her eyes and moved on, but lately it seemed like anything to do with hormonal release was making Rose snappish.

"Hey, where's the hostility coming from?" he asked her now, trying to keep up with her furious footsteps. "You know I'll ditch her if you really don't like her, but come on, since when do you care –"

"I _don't_," Rose insisted. She didn't even know what she'd been getting at with that comment; all she knew was that she wanted to annoy Scorpius as much as he'd been annoying her, and for some reason baiting him about Emme McLaggen seemed like the way to go. "I don't care. Just go away, I'm mad at you."

"I didn't do anything!" Scorpius said, although that wasn't _quite_ true; he knew he couldn't ask a girl the rag question without withstanding the consequences, but he had a feeling that wasn't what Rose was talking about.

Rose seemed to agree with him to some extent, as she settled for flipping her middle finger at him over her head, accompanied by a short "Bite me" as she rounded the corner and out of his sight.

_Well_, Scorpius thought sardonically as she disappeared, _that went just swimmingly, now, didn't it?_

* * *

Later, Rose lay on Scorpius's bed, waiting for him to return from the library where Albus had told her he was working on his Potions essay. Rose should have figured as much; she'd finished her own last week, and Scorpius was determined to get a higher mark than her this time. He'd been holing up with that essay for the past three days, and a little spat between him and one of his mates wasn't going to stop him.

That was fine with Rose. She wouldn't have let some stupid fight between them stop her from whooping him at any of their assignments, either.

This particular argument had been her own fault, Rose knew. Scorpius should keep the rag question to himself and he had been getting on her nerves, but there were a dozen other, more rational ways she could have approached the situation. She was her mother's daughter, after all, and rationality was second nature; the problem was that she'd inherited her father's temper as well, and that tended to take a more forceful precedence. Rose was inclined to wonder if the Weasley temper had some sort of ingrained tendency to spark in the presence of a Malfoy, too, and she made a mental note to ask one of the more sane members of her family about it.

But the point was, Rose told herself, that her argument had been unprecedented and unsound and she didn't even understand half of what she'd thrown in Scorpius's face. She knew why she was mad, but the rest of it, like that business about Emme – Rose shook her head at the memory – what had that been about? She could make all the excuses she wanted, but none of them were relevant enough for her to effectively lie to herself.

And so here she was, lounging across Scorpius's mattress, waiting for the stupid tosser to get back to his dorm so she could apologize. She made another mental note to quit bickering with him; this whole fight-apologize-fight thing was already getting old, and waiting around like this was just plain tedious.

When she heard the door open, she looked over and offered the newcomer a tentative smile. For his part, Scorpius felt his heart drop into his stomach. He didn't know what was going on between them lately, either, but coming back to his empty dormitory to find Rose Weasley sprawled across his bed wasn't exactly making things easier.

He wanted to blame her for how good-looking she was – beautiful girls always complicated things – but then he knew it was his own damn fault, whatever _it_ was. He was the one who kept staring at things he shouldn't be staring at – her freckles, the swing of her hips when she walked, her mouth whether she was talking or not, the way she scratched just behind her knee…

God, he was losing it.

"Hi." Rose's voice broke past his reverie.

"Hello." Scorpius's greeting was slow, measured. Now that he'd more or less situated himself with the fact that Rose was in his bed – it wasn't like it was the first time – he'd become rather wary that she was ready to hex him into a puddle of mush. "Are you here to kill me?"

"No." Rose took a deep breath; she hated apologizing, especially when she had to do it because she'd done something stupid. "I'm sorry."

Scorpius raised an eyebrow and fell onto the bed next to her. "For…?"

Another deep breath. "For telling you that I hope your first child is a Cyclops," she muttered, not looking at him.

"Ahh… Gotta be honest, Weasley, I wasn't too fussed about that."

She laughed and nudged him with her foot. "Yeah, well, we'll see how you feel when you've got a one-eyed firstborn."

Scorpius nudged her right back. "Is this an undercover conversation?"

Rose bit her lip, thinking about it, and he really wished she wouldn't do things to draw attention to her mouth. It was difficult enough to keep his eyes trained on hers without any other provocation.

_Fucking hell, man, get a grip._

"Yeah," Rose said in answer to his question. She tugged the comforter up until they were shrouded in green-tinged darkness, and Scorpius thought that perhaps this hadn't been his smartest suggestion as of late.

They'd started the "undercover conversation" bit back in third year. They'd been cramming for exams late into the night, so late that the library was closed and both of their common rooms were packed with other students doing the same thing as them. So they'd holed up in the Slytherin boys' dormitory, and since most of its inhabitants were asleep, the pair had to confine the light of their wands to the space under the covers so as not to disturb them. Eventually it became a good trick for both of them to utilize, as it was always much easier to tell secrets in the dark, and neither of them had ever been good at telling secrets any other way.

Scorpius just wasn't sure that hiding under the covers with Rose Weasley was in his best interests right now. And then she was slipping one of her legs between his, like she always did because they were that kind of affectionate, and he _knew_ this was a bad idea.

"So," he said in an attempt to keep his sodding teenage mind on the task at hand, "why else are you here? Besides apologizing for cursing my future children into a one-sided peripheral existence, that is?"

Comforted by the darkness, Rose took another breath and started talking. "I feel bad for yelling at you," she said. "For some reason. Even though you deserved it. Because you're presumptuous and I'm not going to shag you and you make fun of me _all the time_. You don't think you're doing it, but you are."

Even though she couldn't see him clearly in the lack of light, Rose kept her eyes downcast as she talked. She thought about her father's letter, about what Roxanne had said, about what she herself was feeling despite her better judgment, and she wasn't sure how much longer she could tell herself that she didn't want something from Scorpius that he was always joking about. She thought that maybe if he just realized what he was doing and stopped, then she had a chance to make the feeling go away, to nip it in the bud, because she didn't have time to deal with this bullshit.

"Like when?" Scorpius prompted when she seemed to get lost in thought. He knew he teased her, but the more personally serious his motives became, the less it all seemed like a joke to him. But he really couldn't afford to think that way and he had to stop, he knew that much.

"Like when you make jokes about dating and snogging and all that rubbish," Rose explained, "it sounds like you're mocking me."

"Well, I'm not," he insisted, because as much as he didn't know _what_ he was doing, mocking her was never the intention. "Maybe you're just a paranoid git."

Rose rolled her eyes. "Sheez, mate, I'm trying to apologize. You know, sort of. I'm doing the best I can," she added a bit desperately when she correctly interpreted Scorpius's silence to mean that he wasn't quite buying it.

"Yeah," he said, laughing a little bit. "Well, I'm sorry, too."

Rose was just opening her mouth to say something else when a loud _"Ahem"_ sounded from somewhere beyond their blanket sanctuary. The pair exchanged confused looks before they yanked the covers down to see Emme McLaggen standing at the foot of the bed, and she did not look pleased. Her lips were pursed, arms crossed, one hip cocked to the side, and her foot was tap-tap-tapping insistently against the floor. She raised her eyebrows at them, inviting an explanation.

"Er – it's not what it looks like?" Scorpius tried, not realizing how incriminating the words sounded until it was too late to take them back. "I mean –"

"We were just talking," Rose put in, fighting the urge to roll her eyes again at Emme's suspicious glare and Scorpius's ineptitude.

"M_hmm_." Emme smacked her lips together, unconvinced. "I guess it's pretty difficult to have a conversation on the other side of the sheets."

_Fuck it_, Rose thought, and rolled her eyes despite herself. "You have no idea. Anyway, I have to go." She sat up, and hopped over Scorpius and off the bed. "I'll see you later."

And then she was gone, leaving nothing behind but that lingering scent – _apples_, it was always apples, and it had settled into his bedsheets and Scorpius had a bad feeling that they wouldn't be dissipating anytime soon.

"So." Emme's caramel-colored eyes watched Scorpius shrewdly as they searched for signs of dishonesty. "Just talking, then?"

"Yeah, Em," Scorpius assured her, ignoring the pang of disappointment in his chest. "Just talking."

That seemed to be good enough for Emme McLaggen. After all, she'd heard them muttering when she'd come into the room, they were both fully dressed, and Rose Weasley wasn't exactly known for her promiscuity; quite the opposite, actually.

Besides, Emme knew that any girl who wanted a shot with Scorpius Malfoy had to accept Weasley as part of the deal. He'd left plenty of other girls high and dry if they so much as mentioned dissatisfaction with that particular friendship. While Emme had privately acknowledged that she and Scorpius wouldn't become anything serious, she wasn't quite ready to let their fling end, so for now she'd just keep rolling with the punches.

"All right," she said, decidedly happier now than she had been upon her arrival. She settled herself down next to Scorpius so that, to make room for her, he had to roll over into where Rose had been laying. She grinned at him and placed a hand on his thigh. "So I was thinking…"

"I'm not really in the mood," Scorpius said, noting the suggestive way she'd let her sentence trail off. Sure, he'd been in the mood a few minutes ago, but now that his mood had walked out the door, he was just trying to think of a way to get Emme to leave, too, and then he could be alone with his bedsheets.

Emme frowned a little but nevertheless remained coy. "Oh come on," she pressed, rolling over so she could kiss his neck. "You spent the last, what, three hours in the library with that essay. You deserve a break."

Scorpius sighed. He knew he could, and maybe he should, maybe it would get whatever this other feeling was out and away from him, but something about that didn't feel right. Was he really going to use Emme just to make whatever he may or may not be feeling about Rose go away?

It wasn't that he didn't like Emme at all – she was fine, really, sort of – but even his half-formed feelings about Rose felt stronger than his attraction to Emme. That had to mean something; at the very least, it meant he should break things off with her sooner rather than later.

For the time being, though, Scorpius just shrugged her off with a noncommittal "Nah, I'm sort of tired." Emme seemed rather put-off with him, but at least it made her leave. He thought that if he kept this attitude up, maybe he could get her to break it off with him before he got a proper chance; that was always easier, even if it did make him look like a prick.

Scorpius sighed again, irritated with himself for half a dozen different reasons, and rolled over so that his senses were once again assaulted with that apple scent. Everything smelled like Rose now, and he just wanted her to come back so he could keep talking to her.

_God damn it._

* * *

_A/N: Fun fact! Rose's line "I hope your first child is a Cyclops" wasn't just a flippant, I-pulled-this-out-of-my-ass remark. I actually said that to one of my friends once while we were playing Candyland. If you don't think that game ruins friendships, you're wrong. Luckily enough, my friends don't suck so we're still cool, but if she has any one-eyed offspring, trust me, I am going to get soooo much shit for that._


	3. Fourth-Generation Veela Advice

_Regarding the title of this chapter – I'm assuming that Victoire and Dominique are fourth-generation. Fleur Delacour tells Ollivander in GoF that her grandmother was a Veela, but doesn't mention any earlier generations. While it's possible and very likely that there were earlier Veela in the Delacour family, I'm just going off what I know._

_IMPORTANT: In this chapter's letter, Dominique's commentary is written in italics, and Victoire's in bold italics. _

* * *

**October 2****nd**

_Rose – _

_Your mum told Aunt Ginny who told our dad who told our mum who told us that your dad is panicking about who you're sleeping with. Mum thinks you're more likely to talk to us than you are to your dad (obviously), so spill, who are you shagging?_

_**Well, we know who you're supposedly shagging – that Scorpius Malfoy. While I commend you for your good taste, I am completely appalled that you've been claiming that the two of you are "just friends" all these years.**_

_This coming from the girl who was "just friends" with Teddy Lupin. Nice engagement ring, by the way; your "just friend" has impeccable taste in jewelry. _

_**Fair point. Anyway, Rose, if you're not shagging him, Dom and I have decided that you should, so we're going to give you some advice. Now, as a newly engaged woman, I think it's safe to say that I'm the most well-equipped to help you out.**_

_Maybe, but I've got the most experience. Listen, Rosey-posey, you two are already friends, yeah? You've already let him go too far. You need to back it up a bit, play hard-to-get, make him work for it, otherwise he'll get bored and you'll be "just friends" until the end of time._

_**And I think that you should continue on the way you have been. It's gotten you this far, hasn't it? Take it from someone who's been in a similar situation, love: Start dropping hints that you're looking for a little more than just-friendship.**_

_NO. No hints! Maybe if you wanted him to propose, but we're not there yet. Right now you just want to get him to sleep with you – not that he doesn't already want to, but blokes are ridiculous and they never do any of the work themselves. Play it cool. This is your new mantra: You are aloof, you are desirable, and you can have any man that you want, as long as he doesn't know that you want him._

_**That sounds like an incredible waste of time.**_

_Don't you have china patterns to look at or something?_

_**Yes, actually, so let's wrap this up: Just be yourself.**_

_Agreed. And "yourself" just so happens to be cool, aloof, and desirable. _

_Channeling our superior knowledge to you – Victoire and Dominique_

* * *

Torn between amusement and exasperation, Rose groaned at the letter in her hands. "Merlin, _will it never end_?"

"Is it another letter from your parents?" asked Lucy, who was sitting next to her cousin at the Ravenclaw table. "Roxanne told me that your dad thinks you're sexually active."

"Yeah, well, this –" Rose flourished the letter – "is just Victoire and Dominique, you know, trying to make sure that I am." Her eyes skimmed over the looping handwriting once more. "It's awfully confusing, actually, they have entirely different approaches."

Lucy pulled a face. As much as she loved her cousins, she always thought those particular two were a little too boy-crazy. "You're not actually going to take any of that advice, are you?"

Rose shrugged and went back to her lunch. "I'm just making a point. But if I _were_ to take any advice…" She chewed thoughtfully, swallowed, and shrugged again. "Yeah, I'd probably sort through this mess and pick up some odds and ends.

"Don't look so shocked, Luce," Rose added with a laugh when she saw the expression on the other girl's face. "Victoire's engaged, isn't she? Granted, it's to Teddy and he's totally bizarre, but still. And Dominique, well, you know how she is; she knows what she's talking about. As much as I'm inclined to blame the Veela genes, they're still bound to have a couple of tricks up their sleeves. Could you pass the ketchup?"

"Doesn't Scorpius have a girlfriend, though?" Lucy asked, eyes narrowed as she handed the bottle over.

"Not really," Rose said, then mentally kicked herself. She was absolutely not the type of person who made excuses for romantically inserting herself into other people's relationships, no matter how unofficial those relationships were. And, God, this was _Scorpius_ she was thinking about – her best mate, partner-in-crime, her right-hand man. She didn't want to shag him no matter how incredibly smart or funny or good-looking he was, or how much she thrived on his competitive streak and liked the way he flicked the hair out of his eyes and the way they always talked under the covers and…

_Damn it._

"Anyway," Rose went on, a little more loudly than was necessary as she tried to shake away those thoughts, "I never said I was trying anything with him. I just meant that if I was going to do anything with anyone, then I'd take a leaf out of the Delacour-Weasley book."

"Okay," Lucy said, measuring those words carefully in her very tactful mind, "so is there anyone you want to try this on?"

"No." Rose poured too much ketchup on her meatloaf and stuffed too much of it in her mouth, and Lucy pulled another face but didn't comment on her cousin's questionable eating habits.

"So why is everyone bugging you about it?"

"Have you _met_ our family?" Rose said, almost incredulously. "They're nutty. That's why."

"Hmmm." Lucy considered that, but it didn't quite seem to fit. Besides, even if it was enough to explain away all of their behavior, Lucy had her own suspicions about Rose and Scorpius, and it baffled her to no end that no one else had noticed until now. "It's been my experience that some of them have at least a basis in rationality."

"Sure," Rose conceded with another mouthful of food, "like my mum and your dad, Aunt Angelina, Uncles Bill and Charlie most of the time… Overall, though, the madness causes quite the imbalance."

Lucy tapped her chin and regarded her denial-ridden cousin shrewdly over the tops of her square spectacles. "I'm just saying, Rose, maybe they know more about you than you give them credit for."

"So, what, they know more about me than I know about myself?"

"Sometimes, yeah."

Rose wasn't so sure about that, but it wasn't worth arguing over. "If you say so, Luce," she said. She swiped at the ketchup on her lips and stuck her thumb in her mouth to clean it of the condiment.

Lucy sighed and looked around the Great Hall, her eyes landing on the Slytherins and narrowing again. "Why is Scorpius hitting his head against the table?"

"I haven't the slightest idea." Rose followed her gaze and, sure, enough, Scorpius was beating his forehead rhythmically against the green-clothed table, and Albus seemed to be having a good laugh at his friend's expense.

Across the hall, that was exactly what Albus Potter was doing. He chuckled and popped another potato wedge into his mouth. "Maybe if you didn't stare at her so much, you'd quit seeing things that you can twist around in your perverted brain," he suggested, having noticed the way his friend practically whimpered when he saw Rose sucking ketchup off her finger.

Merlin, all of his friends were so gross.

Scorpius straightened in his seat and scowled. "I think McLaggen's the one you've got to tell to quit staring," he observed darkly. Really, he thought that he acted quite the saintly part, compared to Erik McLaggen; you could just _tell_ what that stupid blighter was thinking whenever he looked at Rose, and it was never anything particularly good.

Albus, however, rolled his eyes. "Like I'm worried about McLaggen. You know James heard him going on about Rose to one of their other bunkmates a couple of weeks back?"

"What?" Scorpius looked over at Albus, annoyed. He could only imagine the sort of things McLaggen would be going on about.

"Yeah, a bunch of really raunchy shit, too," Albus continued with a nod, affirming Scorpius's suspicions, "so James put itching powder in his bedsheets and all over his clothes. He had to send away for new things. I don't reckon he'll be pulling anything like that anytime soon and even if he does, Rose would shoot him down so fast that he'll _wish_ he had more itching powder in his pants."

"Maybe I should quit telling her to go out with him," Scorpius said vaguely as his eyes roved around the Gryffindor table, looking for McLaggen for no real reason other than he felt like staring daggers at him.

Albus threw a crumpled-up napkin at him. "What the fuck?"

"I don't know what I was thinking," Scorpius defended the best he could. He really hadn't known what he'd been on about when he made that half-assed suggestion to Rose a couple of weeks ago. "I just said it. Not that she'd take my advice, anyway, so it probably doesn't matter."

"Nah, it probably doesn't," Albus agreed as he continued stuffing potato wedges into his mouth. "So since you like staring at Rose so much, does that mean you're ditching Emme for us in Hogsmeade tomorrow?"

"I wasn't staring," Scorpius countered, although he certainly had been.

"Yeah, right, okay," Albus said disinterestedly, "so answer my question."

Scorpius decided against arguing with his friend's disbelieving demeanor and shook his head. "I told Emme I'd go with her. I think I've been neglecting her."

"So? It's not like you actually fancy her."

"I'm trying not to be a complete arse," Scorpius muttered halfheartedly. As much as he wanted to goad Emme into ending things with him, it made him feel like the complete arse he was trying not to be. He was conflicted.

Of course he was conflicted, he thought as his eyes found their way back to the Ravenclaw table. Even when he took Emme out of the equation, he was conflicted. He'd never considered himself a player – he was always sure to keep it at one girl at a time because that was the decent thing to do – but he'd never much fancied the idea of a serious relationship, either.

He guessed that it would be rather easy to take that extra step with Rose. As far as he could tell, the only thing that would change would be that their lack of snogging would evolve into a copious amount of said activity, and that was something Scorpius would definitely like to happen, best mate be damned because he wanted more.

But hell if he knew what Rose wanted, and something told him that she didn't know, either.

* * *

A smattering of random sixth- and seventh-years sat around North Tower, nodding off during that afternoon's Divination lesson. Neither Rose nor Scorpius knew why they'd bothered continuing the subject, other than it was an easy grade and a good laugh. The course had never been anything but trouble for Rose's parents, she knew, but she got along well enough with old Professor Trelawney (although she suspected this was more because the batty old lady had known what to expect when another Weasley signed up for her class). Ultimately, though, North Tower was a great place for a nap.

In fact, Rose was just about asleep that afternoon, amidst a lecture on the alignment of the planets, when she felt a sharp jab in her side. She opened her eyes and shot Scorpius a dirty look, but he just looked at her meaningfully and mouthed _Trelawney's watching you_. And before Rose could properly situate herself to look like she'd been paying attention, the professor was talking to her as well.

"Miss Weasley," the woman said in her breathy, ethereal voice, "might I ask what exactly is so fascinating that it has so troubled your aura?"

Having absolutely no idea what that was supposed to mean, Rose blurted out the first excuse that crossed her mind: "I was having a premonition."

"Oh!" Professor Trelawney's already magnified eyes widened even further in apparent excitement. "Well, tell us, dear – what was your vision?"

"It was… dark," Rose said and then, gaining confidence with how she was going to continue, she nodded vigorously. "Yeah. Dark. Everything's going to be dark. Blimey…"

She paused to blink a few times, wondering if she would get detention for this, and then thought _screw it_ and said, "I reckon I've successfully predicted nighttime."

There was an outburst of appreciative chuckles at that – Scorpius had to stifle a loud snort – and Professor Trelawney sighed dramatically at her students' immaturity. But before she could issue any reprimands, the bell very thankfully rang, dismissing them from their final lesson of the day. Still laughing, and relieved that the lesson had ended without any mention of homework, the class dispersed, climbing down the silver stepladder and disappearing down various corridors towards their next destination.

"Five Galleons says I beat you in the next Divination exam," Scorpius joked as he and Rose made their way down the corridor, not in any hurry to get anywhere. He elbowed her playfully in the ribs.

"Why don't you just _give_ me your money?" Rose suggested, elbowing him right back. "Or did you miss the part where I predicted nighttime?"

Scorpius laughed. "You wouldn't have to come up with that bollocks if you weren't so obvious about sleeping in the middle of class."

"Whatever." Rose waved a dismissive hand before moving on to a more interesting topic of conversation. Or rather, something that had been nagging her since she'd talked to Albus after lunch earlier.

"So Al says that you're favoring Emme tomorrow," she said casually. She wondered what sort of advice Victoire and Dominique would give her if they knew that Scorpius already had someone to fool around with; knowing those two like she did, she suspected that the phrase "Ice the bitch" would make regular appearances. "I thought she was too _boring_ to spend the afternoon with."

"I'm just trying to be nice to her," Scorpius said awkwardly. He didn't want to have this conversation with Rose. "Or something."

"Taking things to the next level, are we?" Rose said more lightly than she felt when she considered what exactly that next level would mean for her. She'd be able to tell her mother that the "just friends" aspect was final, her father not to worry, her cousins that she didn't need their advice anymore… She was not proud to admit how uncomfortably hollow all those thoughts made her.

"No," Scorpius answered shortly. "Don't be stupid."

"I'm not being stupid," Rose said, temper flaring. She felt stupid enough as it was, worrying about this when she didn't even know how she felt, and she didn't need it pointed out for her by the very person who was causing her inner turmoil. "If you feel like being so nice to her – which isn't exactly your forte – then it's a safe assumption that maybe you want to throw in the towel and just have a real relationship already."

Scorpius stopped walking so he could concentrate his efforts on looking at her. "So you want me to ask Emme to be my girlfriend?" he asked while his heart dropped into his stomach.

"No," Rose said and then, suddenly nervous about the implications of that _no_, she shook her head fiercely. "I mean, well, whatever you want, I don't care. Look, I was just asking if we were going to see you tomorrow; you don't have to make a big thing out of this."

"Pretty sure you're the one making a 'big thing' out of this, Weasley."

"Fine," Rose snapped, and she started walking away from him. "I'll never ask you another question ever again."

Scorpius caught her arm before she could go too far. "That's not what I meant," he said, about to lose his own temper. But he didn't want to have another fight, so he just sighed deeply and raked his fingers through his hair. "What is with us lately?"

Part of Rose wanted to keep arguing, but it was so pointless that she only echoed his sigh and hand-through-the-hair motion. "You mean how we're good one minute and hate each other the next?" she asked, knowing that she'd hit the nail right on the head. "I don't know."

"Care to talk it out?" Scorpius suggested, even though he wasn't sure that was the best idea when he considered what he'd potentially have to tell her.

Fortunately enough, Rose shook her head again. She wasn't terribly fond of the prospect of explaining her unresolved feelings to him, either. "Maybe if we end up dueling or something, but since it's only gotten so far as me dazzling you with my wit, I reckon we're okay."

He smirked and dropped his hand from her arm. "You're not _that_ clever."

"I'm exceedingly clever," Rose countered as though it was obvious, and then she sighed again. She hated bickering with him like this; it was one thing to tease each other and participate in their insane academic competitions, but arguing about relationships was just barmy and not worth it, and she was tired of apologizing for this stupidity. "Listen, Scor, I'm sorry for… whatever."

"Oh, thanks," Scorpius said through thinly veiled sarcasm. "That means a lot."

Rose punched him. "Come on, you know what I mean," she said. "Sorry for giving you a hard time about Emme."

"Right." Once again feeling uncharacteristically awkward, Scorpius stuffed his hands into his pockets and rocked back and forth on his feet. "Doesn't matter. That's not going to last much longer, anyway, so you might as well take the mickey out of me while you still can."

"Oh, yeah, well, you know I will." Rose grinned up at him, and she felt something swoop down into her stomach when he smiled back at her. _Oh, fuck it all, am I in trouble or what?_ "All right, so come here, then; let's hug this thing out so I can quit feeling like such a sod."

Scorpius laughed a little and he slipped his hands out of his pockets. He latched his arms around her waist while hers wound around his middle, and pulled her close. He loved hugging Rose – of course he did, he got to touch her. God, he was such a pansy, but she smelled so good and she just fit, right there, between his arms and against his chest, and he was okay with them fighting as long as they made up.

"You're not a sod," he assured her, his voice muffled by her hair – those soft, wild curls that smelled so deliciously of apples and something like sugar. "You're a little bit of a twit, though, I'll give you that."

"Comes from spending so much time with you," Rose said, chuckling into the front of his shirt. Blimey, he was so _warm_. She tried to stamp out images of rolling up under the covers with him again, this time perhaps to do the sort of things that Emme McLaggen had been so ready to accuse them of… But, of course, Rose couldn't do any of those things _because_ of Emme McLaggen. She was not that type of awful person, no matter how much she wished Scorpius would quit being such a good mate and just kiss her already.

_Oh, fuck. _That sort of thinking was most definitely not the "cool, aloof, and desirable" that Rose was sure Dominique had in mind, and it didn't so much _hint_ at "something more" as it positively screamed it. Not that any of that mattered, she was quick to remind herself, because she had no right to move in on her best friend when he was kinda-sorta-unofficially-but-all-the-same seeing someone else.

So instead of throwing caution to the winds as she was so wont to do, Rose stepped away from the embrace first. Scorpius was her best mate, her "just friend," the boy she hid under the blankets with to tell secrets – all of her secrets, everything, she shared them with Scorpius.

But as they continued down the corridor and he swung an arm around her shoulders and joked with her about Divination, Rose thought that perhaps this secret was one she'd keep to herself for a little while longer.

* * *

_A/N: I feel as though this has gotten unintentionally love triangle-y, and I am not pleased with myself. NOT. PLEASED. I have this vendetta against love triangle plots (someday I'll type it up and post it, I'm sure), so… I'm going to figure out a way to alter this without taking Emme entirely out of the equation, as I rather like her and would like to continue writing her._

_ALSO, if this is the first fanfiction of mine that any of you have read, feel free to follow me at _**cokebottleglassesarecool**_ on Tumblr as well! My ask box is always open, anon or otherwise. _


	4. French Kissing and English Boys

**October 3****rd**

_Rose, Rose, Rose… I bet you can practically hear me shaking my head at you, so I'll just cut right to the chase, shall I? _

_I was out to lunch with my gossip-hungry sisters yesterday, and apparently the latest Potter/Weasley hot topic is you and Scorpius Malfoy. What's that about? Not that he's not worth your time, but you're sixteen. Play the field a little bit! You don't have to settle down with a boyfriend just because he's fit and your dad thinks the two of you are shagging, anyway. (At least, that's what I've gathered from Vicky and Dom's chatter, but you know how they like to talk over each other; sometimes it's hard to keep up.)_

_Really, it's been my experience that English boys are completely clueless, anyway. You should join me and Luc in France this summer – that's where the real men are. Just a thought._

_Although I suppose if you really did fancy Scorpius, you'd have my blessing. Just do me one favor: Once you snog him, send me a detailed report, and then I can tell you without a doubt whether or not you should ditch him and come to France with us. I mean, if the bloke does well enough, you can keep your French kissing in England. Ah, talk about fun with geography. _

_Good luck – Louis _

* * *

Rose thought about Louis's letter as her eyes skimmed over the High Street, wondering how on earth she was supposed to "play the field" since everyone she went to school with was either related to her or – as Louis had alluded to – was otherwise a complete dunce. Point in fact, Erick McLaggen caught her roving eye and grinned at her just a little too eagerly, and he might have winked at her, too. Eurgh.

It wasn't that she was particularly interested in dating to begin with, but still, Rose had to wonder what exactly her family expected of her:

Her mother wanted her to have the same sort of sweeping romance that she'd had. Her dad wanted her to keep it in her pants (probably forever). Roxanne, Victoire, and Dominique wanted her to go for it with Scorpius, just as long as she went about it in the "right" way. Louis apparently wanted her to be young and wild and free like he'd been before he met Luc. And Merlin only knew what the rest of them thought, but Rose was sure she'd find out soon enough.

As she was mulling all this over – brooding, really – Albus noticed that something was up. He shoved her as they walked to snap her out of it. "Hey," he said, "what's with you?"

"Nothing," Rose said, too quickly and too lightly for any of her cousins to believe her.

"Oh, okay," Albus said sarcastically.

"You're being weird," Lily piped up.

"More so than usual," Lucy added.

"I'm not being weird," Rose countered the lot of them. "I'm just feeling… quiet."

Lily poked her playfully in the stomach. "Yeah, that's the weird part. What's wrong, are you hungry? Dad says that Uncle Ron always gets cranky when he's hungry, too."

"Sure, I'm hungry," Rose said, giving up. She didn't want to get into the subject of her love life, or lack thereof, again, and she could always go for food, anyway. She grabbed Lily's hand and started walking more briskly down the High Street. "Let's go to Honeydukes."

"She's hungry and she wants to stuff herself with chocolate," Lucy muttered to Albus as they followed their cousins down the road.

"She'll be dead by thirty," Albus surmised.

Rose shot them a look over her shoulder. "I can hear you, you know."

They just laughed and Rose gave up for a second time that afternoon, and the foursome continued on their way through the village.

Half an hour later, Rose and Lily sat on the windowsill outside the sweetshop, waiting for Albus and Lucy well away from the throng of their peers that had crowded the cramped candy aisles. They ripped foil apart, and snapped off pieces of milk and white and dark chocolate, encrusted with almonds and caramel swirl, heath bits and strawberry filling.

Lily sucked the jelly out of a truffle, shot a sideways look at her cousin, and said, "So what's the matter, really?"

"I dunno." Rose shrugged and bit into another square of chocolate. She dusted crumbs off her fingertips. "Rubbish, mostly."

"I don't think 'rubbish, mostly' is enough to foil the fail-safe Rose Weasley," Lily noted conversationally. "It's not because of that stuff Erick McLaggen said about you, is it? I heard James and Fred talking about it," she added in answer to Rose's questioning look. "With the help of an Extendable Ear, of course."

"You little sneak," Rose said, smiling proudly.

Lily was unconcerned. "Uncle George gave me a bunch of them specifically for that purpose," she confided. "He said that I had to follow in Mum's footsteps – youngest in a big family, but much cleverer than everybody gives me credit for."

"I think you're plenty clever, Lily-bug."

"Well, _I_ know that," Lily said with a grin, "which is how I know that it's not actually _Erik_ McLaggen that's bothering you."

Rose didn't miss the emphasis, but she feigned ignorance and said, "I really have no idea what you're talking about."

"Mhmm." A triumphant twinkle lit up in Lily's big brown eyes. She popped another truffle into her mouth. "That's what I thought. You know, though, I bet Scorpius would ditch her if he knew that you fancied him."

"Who said I fancied him?" Rose said. She scraped her thumbnail across a bar of white chocolate and sucked the shavings between her lips.

"No one," Lily readily admitted, "but I can tell. See, you're not giving me enough credit for my cleverness."

"I don't think that's cleverness so much as it is presumption."

Lily shrugged. "Tomato, tomahto. You still fancy him."

Rose's mind wandered to all of those letters that were stacking up in the drawer of her bedside table, all of them assuming the same idea that Lily was now peddling aloud. "This family is impossible," she grumbled.

"Don't we know it." Lily smiled indulgently and ruffled up the older girl's unruly hair. "We're just bored, that's all, and it's your turn to be the center of attention."

"_Why?"_ Rose groaned and hit the back of her head against the window. "Why me this time?"

"Well…" Lily considered that for a moment so that she was sure to get her point across. "Victoire and Teddy are getting married, and Louis is going strong with Luc. Dom's not seeing anyone seriously. James, Fred, Rox, and Al are all too busy obsessing about Quidditch to bother dating, and Lucy doesn't bother with it, either. Molly's seeing that bloke she met at the Ministry, and even though Hugo's on his date today, he's still a shade too young for anyone to bug him too much. And I'm too young for them to care, either.

"So, _in conclusion_," she went on with a deep breath to collect herself, "nobody else is as… titillating. There's no will-they, won't-they aspect, y'know? But you and Scorpius are exciting, there's so much tension and potential, and we're all waiting on tenterhooks to see what happens to your dad's health when you and Scor finally get together."

Lily cocked her head to the side thoughtfully and turned to regard her slack-jawed cousin. "D'you get it now?"

"Uh…" Rose blinked a few times, completely caught off-guard by Lily's succinct summary of events. She might be the youngest, but Uncle George had pinpointed her cleverness down to a tee. "Yeah, I – I reckon I've got it."

Proud of herself and deciding that she'd earned it, Lily tore another wrapper and stuck the chocolate into her mouth. "See, that's one of the perks of being the youngest," she said wisely. "You get to watch what happens to everybody else when they grow up, and then you can prepare yourself for when you've got to do it, too."

"Yeah." Rose nodded and thought about all those letters again, and the multitude of ones that were sure to keep right on coming. She slurped at the caramel that was stuck under her fingernail. "Guess that makes you the lucky one."

Lily grinned, quite content in the knowledge that she seemed to be living up to her mother's example, after all. And it seemed to her that her dear Rosie was every bit as stubborn as she'd always heard Uncle Ron had been, too.

_Too right this family's impossible_, she thought, and grinned some more.

* * *

Scorpius lay on his bed, staring listlessly up at the ceiling as he mulled over the events of that afternoon. There wasn't too much to think about – nothing apart from the norm of late, anyway – but still he felt like complete shit.

By evidence of that day's Hogsmeade visit, Emme seemed much more content to waste her time with him than he was with her. He'd even gone so far as to take that potentially dangerous leap – the leap he never, ever took for fear of where he'd land – to ask her what she thought of their relationship, and the conversation hadn't quite gone in the direction that he'd been hoping.

"So what's up with us?" he'd asked her as they meandered aimlessly down the shop-lined road. "D'you like what we're doing, or do you think it's time to cut our losses?"

Emme's sparkling dark eyes had regarded him curiously, almost as if she thought he was mentally addled, and she'd said, "What are you talking about? We're fine, Scorpius."

"I didn't say we _weren't_ fine," he'd pointed out, annoyed with himself for not being able to articulate his thoughts properly. He was a Malfoy, for the love of Merlin, he was supposed to be good at this sort of thing. Cool, collected, all of that, and yet he was fumbling helplessly. "I just thought that maybe we'd run our course."

"Hmm, I don't think so," Emme had disagreed, and she'd seemed entirely uninterested in the topic now that he'd made himself a little more clear. "Why don't we head over to Scrivenshaft's? I need to pick up some more parchment."

And that had been the end of it.

Scorpius thought he could give himself a little credit, for at least he'd brought the topic up. It was on the table now, and Emme had to know that he was considering ending it. From what he knew about Emme McLaggen – and he knew her rather well, really – she wasn't the type of person who liked to get dumped. She liked to be in control. So if she was made aware of his discontent, if she started sensing his boredom, she'd just end it herself and Scorpius wouldn't have to worry about it anymore.

_Hell, you're a right big coward, mate._

Well, that much was obvious, Scorpius mused bitterly. He'd never been good at breaking it off with girls; in fact, the only time he'd ever found it easy was when they were intolerably priggish about Rose. As soon as one of them made some arguably derogatory remark about his friendship, he'd found it simpler than breathing to ditch them then and there. Of course, now Scorpius had to admit that anything Emme would object to in that regard would be justifiable. He did, after all, want to sever ties with her in favor of Rose, and somehow that made him feel worse about the whole business, but he wasn't sure why.

He didn't have any more time to dissect that feeling, either, since right then his dormitory door flew open and the subject of Emme McLaggen's prospective objection strolled right into the room.

"Hey," Rose said breezily as she made her way over to his bed. Her eyes flitted around the dorm as if she was looking for something, and a small frown line appeared between her eyebrows. "Where's Emme?"

"Gryffindor Tower, I expect," Scorpius told her, a little confused. Since when did Rose care where Emme was? It wasn't as if they were particularly mate-y with each other, and Scorpius thanked whatever deity that was listening for that small fortune.

"Oh." She flopped down on the mattress next to him. "I thought that maybe she'd be here."

Scorpius turned his head to look at her, one eyebrow lifted in speculation. "If you thought that, why'd you come here?"

Rose's face reddened and she visibly swallowed. "I don't know."

"Oh." Scorpius noted her sudden discomfort and while he wondered at it, he began to feel it a little himself, so he decided to change the subject. "So, um, where's Al?"

"He let me in the common room and then he went to Quidditch practice," Rose explained, relaxing into this less intrusive topic of discussion. "It's Slytherin versus Gryffindor next, and you know how Al gets about playing against James. Fred and Roxanne, too, for that matter, but he doesn't have to live with them in the off-season."

"Yeah, I could see that," Scorpius conceded with a nod. "It's bad enough with me and you and the eternal Tornadoes-versus-Cannons debate, and we don't even _play_ for them."

Rose rolled her eyes at this tired old dispute; it was a five-year-old feud and counting, and they were both too stubborn to ever make any progress. "I still don't see how that's a debate when the Chudley Cannons are the obvious victor."

"Hardly." Scorpius snorted almost derisively at her flawed attempt at logic. "Just look at their namesakes – tornadoes are far superior to cannons."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Rose said in a tone of mock apology, "I didn't realize we were debating between natural disasters and war ammunition." She paused to give him a disapproving look. "If you're not going to take this conversation seriously, Scor, you can't expect me to set much store by your opinion. Which, by the way, is vastly incorrect."

"You can't have an _incorrect_ _opinion_," he scoffed.

"Of course you can." She pointed a meaningful finger at him. "Exhibit A."

Scorpius sighed deeply, like he was resigned to something he didn't really want to do. "That's it, Weasley," he said and then, before Rose could take any evasive action, he'd rolled on top of her and started tickling her furiously, so that she immediately burst out into peals of uncontrollable laughter. "Say the Tornadoes are better!"

"Never!" Rose managed between laughs. She pushed at Scorpius's chest but he wasn't relenting, and to be honest she wasn't trying very hard. She might have insisted to Lily that she didn't fancy Scorpius, but that didn't mean she was going to stop him from touching her.

"Cannons are rubbish!" Scorpius tried next, dancing his fingers over her midsection. He tried to ignore the way his insides twitched when her shirt rode up and his hands touched bare skin.

Rose laughed harder at the skin-on-skin contact and her heart jumped. "No!"

"Tutshill or bust!"

"Scor, _stop_." Rose's back arched involuntarily and for a moment her chest was flush with Scorpius's, and he felt the heat crackle at their points of contact.

And that's when it hit him, really hit him, all of it – Rose Weasley was underneath him, laughing, on his bed, and the room was empty.

He fancied his best mate, and he was touching her, and they were alone.

So, naturally, he kissed her.

His hands were on her hipbones, her shirt had ridden up, and he kissed her mid-laugh, cutting off the sound so that it disappeared between their lips. He kissed her hard, eyes shut tight against the pain of the inevitable slap she was sure to hit him with, but the slap never came.

Rose Weasley kissed him back. And she didn't miss a beat.

Her arms were around his neck, hands fisted in his hair, her back arched against him again and her mouth opened under his. It was like she'd been waiting for him to do this (which, she admitted to herself, she had been), and Scorpius thought that if he'd known that, he wouldn't have wasted so much time _not_ kissing her. So he kissed her harder, and she reciprocated.

Her tongue touched his first, her hands moved from his hair down his neck and into the collar of his shirt. Her skin melted into his and it was – God, it was _hot_, and Scorpius groaned into her mouth and pushed his hands up her already-rumpled shirt. He traced up and across her ribcage, around the naked curve of her waist, and down the line of her stomach. He felt her breath hitch, her chest heave once, then twice, beneath his touch, and he felt her fingernails scratch and dig into the place where his shoulder blades met.

Scorpius's mouth left hers to travel down the side of her neck, and Rose kept her eyes shut against the sensations he was inflicting on her skin, skin he was surely going to mark in more than one place. This was bad, bad, _bad_, she _knew_ that, but it was also way too good for her to stop it. So maybe she was selfish and maybe she was that awful sort of person who inserted herself into other people's relationships, but then Scorpius's lips were attacking that corner where her jaw line met her ear and he was murmuring her name and she just didn't care anymore.

But she _should_ care.

She was snogging Scorpius Malfoy – her "just friend" who was _seeing someone else_, for cripes sake, oh bloody buggering hell, what was she doing?

"Oh, shit." Rose sat up so quickly and unexpectedly that she knocked Scorpius right off her and onto the floor.

"Ow, fuck," Scorpius swore and straightened into a sitting position, rubbing the back of his head, just as Rose was jumping up from the bed. "What's wrong?"

"I –" Rose was fidgeting with her shirt, trying to flatten her hair, looking anywhere but him. "I just – I should – I have to go."

"What?" Scorpius pushed himself off the floor and Rose took a step back from him. "Why – Rose, don't leave."

Even though she was sure that she wasn't supposed to, Rose heard a little bit of a plea in his voice, and it was enough to make her want to close the space between them and kiss him again. She wanted to; maybe if she hadn't come to her senses they wouldn't have stopped in the first place. But she had come to her senses – her senses had just about punched her right in the face – and now that first-kiss frenzy had evaporated and all she felt was a nauseating combination of shame and embarrassment. Emme McLaggen might as well have walked in on them, for all the good it would do Rose's guilt factor.

With that in mind, Rose just shook her head and continued to avoid Scorpius's searching look. "I'll see you later, Scor," she muttered to her feet, and she sidestepped him and all but ran out of the room before he could say another word.

Scorpius stared at the door, the sound of it closing reverberating around the empty room. His lips were tingling with the taste of Rose Weasley, his sodding best mate. Her mouth had tasted like the half a dozen different kinds of chocolate she'd eaten at Honeydukes earlier, and her skin had been tinged with the vague aroma of some sort of cherry perfume.

He'd kissed her. He'd kissed Rose Weasley. His best mate. He'd kissed her. Right on the mouth.

And she'd kissed him back.

And now she was gone.

And Scorpius was very, very confused.


	5. Aunt Ginny Knows Best

_Yeah, yeah, I'm being sort of a twat about updating my multi-chapters (for all you dual readers of LtR, HtBCtS, and/or DC) but give me a break. I'm, like, tired and I go outside and stuff. Solemnly swear that I'll get back to everything soon enough. _

_Now, at least a couple of reviews mentioned this, so I wanted to clear it up on a personal level… For the record, I realize that Scorpius was/perhaps still is being a complete fuck. I'm not trying to romanticize that sort of behavior – it's dramatic and unnecessary, immature and avoidable, and a slew of other derogatory adjectives. I don't condone it (and that's more or less why I loathe and deplore love triangle plots), and it also won't be the last time it's mentioned in the fic; he's got a lesson to learn. Just so you know. _

* * *

**October 10****th**

_Little Ron – _

_I don't know what everyone else is telling you, but take it from me – just kiss him. That's what I did with Uncle Harry._

_You're over-thinking everything, torturing yourself in silence, I bet, just like your dad always did. Aside from your differing opinions when it comes to Malfoys, sometimes you two are so alike that it scares me. And speaking as someone who grew up with him, I'll tell you: Your dad doesn't always have the right idea. He says watch your step with Scorpius, and I say go for it. _

_Listen to your aunt Ginny._

* * *

The trouble, Rose thought, was that she'd already listened to her aunt Ginny. Or Scorpius had. Either way, the deed was done and there was nothing Rose could do to take it back. She licked her lips subconsciously and thought that perhaps she didn't want to take it back, but then she'd very consciously think of Emme McLaggen, and she knew she should.

Of course Aunt Ginny could talk; Uncle Harry hadn't been seeing anyone the first time they snogged. Sure, maybe Uncle Harry had his reservations, what with Rose's dad being around and all that, but that was hardly the same. There had been absolutely no social obligations to hinder her aunt and uncle's romantic relationship. Aside from that whole Voldemort business, but by the time Rose considered that she decided that the two situations just weren't comparable anymore:

On the one hand, there was Voldemort, and on the other, there was Emme McLaggen, and sometimes Rose couldn't decide which was harder to deal with.

Oh, hell, she was going completely bonkers, wasn't she?

The fact of the matter was, Rose told herself firmly whenever she got off-track as such, that she'd snogged her best mate while he was otherwise spoken for. Sort of. Maybe. She didn't know Scorpius's situation with Emme as of now, but she was sure that they were still… together. Or something.

And here she was, moping around because she'd only gotten to kiss Scorpius once and all she wanted was to do it again. And then perhaps again after that. And a few more times, with no predetermined stopping point or lull in their tonsil-conversation.

_Oh, sodding little bugger that is my LIFE, what a mess._

So yes, she was – as Aunt Ginny had so shrewdly guessed – torturing herself. But Rose thought the self-loathing was perfectly justified.

Her brother and cousins noticed the shift in her usually happy-go-lucky demeanor, and continued to barrage her with questions about it. She was constantly assaulted with _Are you all right?_'s and _You look a bit peaky_'s and _So who do we have to hex this time?_'s and _Come on, Rose, you're just not yourself_'s.

She knew they cared, and that everything they did was all in an effort to cheer her up, but what was she supposed to say? The truth? Please. Rose snorted derisively at herself whenever the thought crossed her mind. She could hardly admit the truth to herself, she was so ashamed, so the prospect of saying it out loud was laughable at best, in the most humorless of ways.

Because this wasn't funny. Even to a Weasley, another extension of the already extensive Potter-Weasley-Granger-Delacour-whoever-the-hell-else clan, this situation didn't have a bright side. She could make all the jokes she wanted (if she could come up with any in the first place), but nothing would make this lighthearted. She'd snogged a bloke who was otherwise spoken for; that wasn't her, and this wasn't funny.

And – loathe as she was to admit it, everything considered – she missed Scorpius.

She hadn't spoken to him since Saturday – understandably, she thought, but all the same, she missed having him around, laughing with him, pulling pranks with him and poking fun at him. In short, really, she missed being friends with her best mate.

_Friends_, though… Rose sighed and ran her hands over her tired face. She thought about the way he'd kissed her, about the way she'd kissed him back, how it was all just right and reckless abandon and how it had made her feel, the way he'd murmured her name against her skin, and…

Rose swore silently and resigned herself to the guilt and the whatever-else that was eating her up on the inside. _Friends_ wasn't really going to cut it anymore, now, was it?

* * *

"Emme." Scorpius caught up to his… whatever she was… in the middle of the corridor between lessons. "Can we talk for a mo'?"

Emme lifted one artfully crafted eyebrow at him. Scorpius had been dodging her ever since the Hogsmeade visit last weekend, so she couldn't imagine what he wanted with her now. And considering all his practically incoherent babbling during their walk in the village, she was sure it couldn't be anything good.

For his part, Scorpius knew he'd been that complete arse he'd tried so hard not to be; he'd be the first to admit it, so long as Rose didn't beat him to it (not that she was speaking to him right now). And there it was again – Rose. She was playing around in his head like she was stuck on repeat, so that he couldn't stop thinking about her, and he wanted to kiss her again, but by now he'd figured out why she'd bolted out of his room like she had.

It was because she was Rose sodding Weasley, and despite her troublemaking streak, she wasn't without her morals. She'd turned a fantastic shade of red and a cold shoulder when it came to him all week, and he knew why: It was because he was currently – for want of a better word – _unavailable_, and Rose Weasley just wasn't the on-the-side type of girl. And despite any reputation that he might have accrued over the past couple of years, Scorpius Malfoy wasn't the type of bloke who'd put any girl in that situation.

It's just that he'd lost his head a bit on Saturday, that was all.

He should have broken things off with Emme before now, anyway – he knew that – but now would have to do. He couldn't do it for himself, but now that Rose had really been factored in, he figured he sure as hell could do it for her. For him and her. For whatever he could get.

"Yeah, sure," Emme said. She folded her arms across her chest. "So go on, talk."

"Er, right." Scorpius rubbed the back of his neck. She didn't look too happy with him; he hardly had to wonder why, but it still made this more uncomfortable than it already was. Not that he intended to tell her a damn thing about Rose, but still, cutting ties was always something of a messy business, which was why he was such rubbish at it in the first place. "So the thing is, what we talked about on Saturday…"

Emme released a long, very impatient breath, and her eyes raised to the ceiling. She'd thought about this, but she still couldn't believe it was actually happening. They were breaking up, and she didn't have to think too far to guess why.

"Get on with it, Scorpius," she bit out as he continued to falter. Her eyes settled back on him and their usually warm caramel hue had darkened with agitation. "I know what we talked about on Saturday. I don't know what your problem is, but I suspect it's got red hair and a mile-long detention record. So go on and dump me, then, and you can get back under the covers and not worry about me at all."

Scorpius's jaw dropped at the rather blatant implication (or was that an accusation?), but she didn't much care. Emme McLaggen wasn't stupid – willfully or otherwise – nor was she blind. No matter how hard Weasley might have tried to hide it or Emme tried to deny it, she'd seen that hickey on Weasley's neck, and she could hazard a guess as to how it had gotten there.

"_Just talking," my arse._

And she'd thought Weasley wasn't a slag. Ha!

"Listen, Emme –" Scorpius began once he'd regained the power of speech, treading carefully, but she cut him off.

"Do you want to break up or not?"

"Well –" _Of bloody course I do; you've just pinpointed my 'problem' yourself, haven't you?_ "Okay, right, I do, but you could at least give me a minute to explain."

Emme laughed – a flat, dark sound, considering the circumstances. "Right, I'll give you a minute to explain just as soon as you convince me that it wasn't you who just about sucked Weasley's skin off!"

Scorpius opened his mouth, closed it, and opened it again, and a very definite frown line creased between his brows. He didn't like how Emme was talking about Rose; it was his own fault, not hers, and he'd like to keep Rose out of this particular conversation, even if she was the center of it.

"She's none of your business, all right?" he said, his voice sharper than he'd intended it to be. "I just don't think you and I are working out."

"We were working out just fine before – well, before whatever happened between the two of you," Emme almost spluttered through her rage. She didn't usually lose her cool like this and honestly, if Scorpius was this hung up on another girl, then Emme was only too happy to call it quits. But the fact that he had the audacity to stand there and _lie_ really riled her up. "If you didn't think we were working out, then you should have just said so."

"I just did!" Scorpius argued, all the while wondering why all the birds in his life were so insistent on being fucking insane.

"You know what I mean," Emme snapped. "Don't play me for a fool, okay? I thought we were doing well, just like I told you on Saturday. But apparently, instead of talking to me, you decided to take it upon yourself to be the biggest prat I've ever met, and you know what? That's fine, because that's not the kind of bloke I want to shag, anyway."

And with that, Emme turned on her heel and strode away from him, leaving Scorpius to wallow in his all-too-consistent guilt (even if all those birds were as fucking insane as he'd convinced himself they were).

But Scorpius didn't have a lot of time to stew. He'd been abandoned right around the corner from the library, where Albus had told him Rose should be, and sure enough…

"Fancy meeting you here," he said as Rose came into view.

She had to stifle a groan; she'd been so sure she could keep avoiding him, and yet, here he was right now, when she least expected it. "Oh, fuck."

Scorpius very nearly scowled at her. That wasn't the reaction he needed right now, not after that crash-and-burn altercation he'd just had with Emme, a crash-and-burn he hadn't quite anticipated and surely hadn't been prepared for. And now that _that_ was over, all he wanted was to snog Rose Weasley – his stupid, sodding best mate – until neither of them could breathe. But he couldn't very well do that if she was going to cop this attitude with him.

"Nice one, Weasley," he said, allowing all his irritation to seep into his words. "Really, nice hello, especially since you've been avoiding me all week."

"I have not," Rose lied, and she knew it. But could he really blame her for any of that?

"You are," Scorpius countered. He took a step towards her. "Stop."

Rose rolled her eyes and attempted to keep it together. "I'm just busy, Scorpius."

_Busy brooding, wallowing, stewing, you know…_

"Bollocks," Scorpius rightfully accused, and took another step. He didn't like being ignored, no matter how hypocritical that might be of him, and he especially didn't like being ignored by a girl who wouldn't stop running through his head. "So convenient for you to be this busy the whole week after we snogged."

Rose picked up his scowl and matched his step. "Shut up."

"What, are you ashamed of me or something?" Scorpius wanted to know, even though he knew quite well that he was just spewing bullshit at this point. He knew exactly why Rose had been avoiding him, and it was precisely why he'd finally taken control and got chewed out by an embarrassed Emme McLaggen just moments ago. But he didn't exactly relish the idea of getting chewed out twice, in such quick succession, and it was making him hostile.

"Don't be ridiculous," Rose said, torn between anger and exasperation. Did everything really have to come to a head right now, after hours of homework and days of sleeplessness? Aggravating as it was, she supposed it was fitting. "But you know what? You should be."

One pale blond eyebrow shot up. "I should be ashamed of kissing you?"

"_Yes,"_ she said, and meant it. Did Scorpius Malfoy not possess a single ethic bone in his ridiculously good-looking body? "Or have you decided to act like a decent human being and ditch Emme? Last I checked you were still seeing each other, and I won't get caught up in the middle of that."

Scorpius tactfully decided to avoid that question for the time being; he felt like a fight, and who better to argue with than his fragile-tempered best mate? This was all her fault, anyway. To an extent. Sort of. A little bit.

_Oh, fine, it's not her fault at all._

"Hate to break it to you, Weasley," he said, and closed the distance between them with another step and a half, "but you're already in the middle of it."

"Well, I'm extracting myself from the situation."

"I'm pretty interested in this situation."

"That's too damn bad," Rose shot back, her exhaustion taking over into snappishness and a whole bunch of things she knew she shouldn't say out loud. "I don't care how good of a snog you are –"

_Look at that, it's one of those things I shouldn't be saying out loud. Shite._

"So you enjoyed yourself, then?"

"Shut _up_, you insane git." Rose resisted the urge to clock him a good one, right in the jaw. She supposed that was the Granger in her. "My point is that you don't get to snog me _and_ Emme. Since it's been a week, as you have oh-so-astutely observed, and you're still – with her, or whatever, then I guess you've made your decision and we can stop having this conversation."

"Jealous, Weasley?" Scorpius baited her, for some sick reason enjoying the idea that Rose Weasley might have been driven to a green-eyed monster state because of him.

Rose closed her eyes, searching for patience. "You know, it's shocking to me that I've known you this long and I've only just discovered how gross you are, Malfoy."

If he'd been in the humor for it, Scorpius would have laughed. "Oh, so _gross_, that's it?" he scoffed instead. "Yeah, all right. That's a nice hickey you've got there, by the way, mind if I give you another one?"

Those blue eyes snapped right back open. "Go to hell."

"For being top in our year, you can be incredibly dense sometimes, do you know that?" Scorpius said. He knew he wasn't making any sort of sense, but he was so wound-up now, and it didn't help that he could smell that consistent apple scent that was just so _Rose_. It was invading him, clouding his brain with incompetency and all those things he wanted from her.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Rose demanded. "I mean, what's that got to do with this, or us, or – damn it, I really do hate you sometimes, you know that? You're driving me mad!"

"Join the club, Weasley," Scorpius invited, "because you're fucking me up, too."

Rose was _this close_ to giving up and into those baser Granger instincts; stupid sod had it coming, didn't he? she thought, but continued to refrain for the time being."Right, because I'm the one who snogged you while I was going with someone else."

Scorpius admitted defeat then; he was a rollercoaster of what he wanted and what he didn't know, and he threw in the towel because damn it, he'd had enough; he wanted to fight but he wanted to kiss her more and this never got them anywhere, anyway, so who was he kidding –

"I'm not going with anyone else!"

Quiet. Dead fucking _silence_.

Rose stared at him, almost slack-jawed, eyes blinking rapidly as her brain attempted to process the information he'd so abruptly thrust at her. Scorpius stared back, his feet shifting uncomfortably beneath him, but he was nevertheless determined to maintain eye contact; he wasn't going to lose this one that easily.

"You – broke up, then?" Rose finally said. Her throat felt dry for some reason.

Scorpius nodded.

"With Emme?"

"No," he said sarcastically, "with that other bird I was shagging. Yes, with Emme."

Rose ignored his cheek; her heart was doing something funny in her ribcage and she had to afford most of her attention to regulating its suddenly erratic beat. "When?"

"I dunno." Scorpius shrugged. He wondered if he was allowed to kiss her senseless yet. "Ten minutes ago?"

Well, that was unexpected, Rose thought. The breaking off, the ten-minutes-ago… Then again, she supposed this whole damnable situation had been unexpected, right from the get-go. She hadn't been cool or aloof or open to experimentation, and she and Scorpius certainly weren't "just friends" anymore. They weren't shagging or dating or – well, in fact, right now they were just standing together awkwardly in the middle of the corridor, but _friends_ wasn't exactly on their minds, either.

"You're really done, then?" Rose ventured, knowing that double-checking was unnecessary. A big, paranoid part of her had doubted all week that Scorpius would really break things off with Emme, but now… He certainly wouldn't lie to her about it.

Scorpius nodded, never taking his eyes off hers, feeling his inner rollercoaster stuttering to a halt. "Yeah," he told her, "really done. With Emme, anyway, and – you know, potentially most every other bird at this place."

"Uh-huh." Rose subconsciously licked her lips and she watched as Scorpius's gaze fell to her mouth at the motion. Okay, so _friends_ was pretty much the farthest thing from their minds, then, and…

Well, why the hell not? Rose thought. So she caught her best mate by his green-and-silver tie, pulled him down to her level, and – taking her aunt Ginny's advice – she just kissed him.

* * *

_A/N: So… yay or nay? Hope it's "yay" enough to keep you going, because we're not quite finished with this one yet; far too much fun for me to close after a measly five chapters. More to come!_


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